1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a liquid ejecting apparatus such as an ink jet printer and a nozzle recovery method used in a liquid ejecting apparatus.
2. Related Art
Ink jet printers have been widely known as liquid ejecting apparatuses for ejecting liquid to a target. These printers perform printing (image formation) on the target by ejecting ink (liquid) supplied to a recording head (liquid ejecting head) from nozzles provided in the recording head.
In one of these printers, when bubbles are incorporated into the ink in the recording head, the ink cannot be properly ejected from the nozzles, resulting in degradation in printing quality. Accordingly, in such a printer, for example, as disclosed in JP-A-2007-152725, a nozzle recovery process is performed by pressurizing the ink, which is supplied from an ink cartridge to the recording head, and thereby pushing the ink containing the bubbles out of the recording head through nozzle openings.
Ink ejection failure caused by the incorporation of bubbles may not occur in all nozzles. Accordingly, as disclosed in JP-A-2007-152725, when the nozzle recovery process is performed by pressurizing the ink supplied from the ink cartridge to the recording head, the ink is pressurized to be supplied to even nozzles that properly eject ink. As a result, the ink is wastefully discharged from the nozzles in normal condition, and a large amount of ink is wasted due to the nozzle recovery process.